KOHAT: All the urban and rural areas of Lachi tehsil have been facing acute water shortage.

This was disclosed by divisional president of a local human rights body, Israr Khan Nasir, in a statement on Tuesday. He said if a water-for-oil agreement of 2003 had been implemented in letter and spirit the oil-producing tehsil would not have faced the water shortage problem. He said Lachi had eight tubewells which were insufficient to meet the water needs of the people.

He regretted that despite several appeals made to the secretary local government, the deputy commissioner and the assistant commissioner the situation did not improve.

He said the rich people had no problem filling their underground home tanks with three to four water tankers a month, but the poor could not afford Rs1,600 to Rs2,500 on a water tanker. He demanded that the administration should dig more wells from the oil and gas royalty funds to end water shortage.

TAX RECOVERY: The assistant commissioner, Kohat tehsil, has asked the revenue staff to recover all pending taxes and wind up land transfers and court cases as early as possible. Chairing a meeting of the revenue department, Captain retired Abdur Rehman asked the officials that no lethargy would be tolerated in the recovery of all kinds of government taxes. He said the officials must present progress reports to him in the next meeting about their performance and amount recovered.

ANTI-ENCROACHMENT DRIVE: The Hangu district administration on Tuesday launched an anti-encroachment drive and removed all handcarts and extended shops from bazaars, squares and roads.

Assistant commissioner, Hangu tehsil, Shahid Rafique Gandapur led the campaign aided by the sanitary inspector and officials of tehsil municipal administration.

The operation was conducted on Thall, Samana, Shahu roads and both sides of the main bazaar. Talking to mediapersons, Mr Gandapur said the operation had been launched to facilitate the vehicular traffic and pedestrians. He asked the trade unions, transporters and business community to cooperate with the administration.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2018